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How important do you consider a good drummer?

#121
It depends on your definition of what a good drummer is. Great drummers like Keith Moon are rare but add so much to the band.

A good drummer must, IMO, be capable of playing a steady tempo, something I find is also rare.

They must be able to play with dynamics, that means play at different volumes.

They must not put in rests that do not exist. (A current peeve with a drummer I play with.)

I would be happy if I could get all the above in one drummer!
 
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#123
Play with a bad drummer and you realise that doing without a drummer is better than a bad drummer. A good drummer is a must. Or an iPad with Garage Band :)
 
#124
They are absolutely critical. Pat Metheny said the drummer is the leader of the band. In jazz, without a good drummer you can't do tension and release properly -- or at least, it's restrained. If the time is not steady, you sound awful. Audiences can't tell you why music is good, but they know it when they hear it. And part of that is solid drumming. Fortunately, there are a lot of good ones out there...
 
#126
Good, bad drummers has been the record deal maker / breaker in the past. Remember George Martin ? The one I say, (instead of Decca records), who said NO THANKS to The Beatles unless they changed drummer! And they did. And guess what? To Ringo Starr. Of all people. Took a lot of flak poor Ringo, but in those days with tapes, you just had to nail tempo like a metronome otherwise you couldn't cut and splice tapes. No matter how simple or inane playing. Which was in George Martins interest. He could have asked for changin out anyone else in that band, but opted for the drummer. An ultimatum was given. Pete Best out, Ringo in.

"George Martin was used to drummers being very 'in time', because all the big-band session drummers he used had a great sense of time. Now, our Liverpool drummers had a sense of spirit, emotion, economy even, but not a deadly sense of time. This would bother producers making a record. George took us to one side and said, 'I'm really unhappy with the drummer. Would you consider changing him?' We said, 'No, we can't!' It was one of those terrible things you go through as kids. Can we betray him? No. But our career was on the line. Maybe they were going to cancel our contract…"

- Paul McCartney.

Pete Best - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So good drummers are that important. That you can give up friendship in order to get the deal. Or at least, it was, it used to be!
 
#127
Bass'd on a true story said:
I agree with above posters who have said the drummer is the most important piece of the band.

No beat = no dancing = no money.
Click to expand...
Wait, I thought the bass player was the most important piece of the band. I say the drummer is the most important piece as far as the bass player is concerned.
 
#129
The thing with the Beatles and bad drummers, is that you detect if they wont develop, in any way. If they don't have it from the start on, it's impossible to woodshed something they don't and won't ever hear. Say, timing.
 
#132
When I worked with record labels in A&R we would listen down the middle to bands. Meaning, singer than drummer. That had to be on point. Without a great singer, you will go nowhere, and without a great drummer, your band will lack the authority to properly deliver the song.
 
#136
Drummer and the Bassist can make or break the potential chemistry of a great Rhythm Section. So first you start with a bass player that can groove (obviously) and then you have to have a drummer that can groove.

Groove + Groove = Groovy Band
 
#139
I quit a paying cover band because the drummer refused to count. He would improvise his beats and follow us. Imagine being on stage playing "metro" and we get to the end, and the drummer just keeps playing the last riff ad infinitum. After about thirty measures I stopped playing and stared at him until he stopped. In the conversation after the show he tells me that he could feel the crowd, and believed they wanted to keep dancing to the groove. That was my first live show with them, and my last.:banghead:
 
#140
I'll weigh in..

Very. A good drummer just locks everything in. I just recently got out of a band with a drummer that absolutely could not play a song the same twice to save his life. I subbed for a band a weekend or two ago with a drummer that could play circles around the first. The good drummer made me/allowed me to play better. Give me a great drummer over a guitar player any day.
 

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